Clarice and Sérgio Assad (from Clarice Assad’s Web site)
Last night at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts Dynamite Guitars season presented a duo performance by guitarist Sérgio Assad and his daughter Clarice, vocalist, pianist, and composer. Both of these performers figured significantly when I was working on the early stages of refining my writing skills. Sérgio was on the Guitar Faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Clarice was bringing her scores to several performing arts organizations in San Francisco, including a productive relationship with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg when she was Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra.
Sérgio’s current return to San Francisco will include an extended early celebration of his 70th birthday (which will take place on December 26) this coming week at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Last night, however, was all about the duo performance of father and daughter. Back in August of 2016, I had written about their duo album Relíquia (relic); and last night’s program included a track from that album, “Capoeira,” which Sérgio had composed with Chico César. However, this was just the tip of an iceberg, which consisted of fourteen offerings (along with one encore), all of which were thoroughly engaging.
Given my own rich listening background, I was particularly drawn to Sérgio’s one solo selection, a pair of short movements reflecting on Maurice Ravel’s “La valse” and Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” The idea of distilling such massive full-orchestra compositions down to a single guitar would probably raise more eyebrows than could be enumerated. However, Sérgio clearly appreciated the power of suggestion, finding just the right fragments to trigger memories of the sources.
Listening to Clarice’s performances reminded me of earlier days when “polymath” was one of my favorite words. She has her own unique vocal toolbox for highly imaginative scat singing, smoothly blended with her clear account of lyrics and her richly engaging piano technique. The vocal selections included many of the old favorites from composers such as Antônio Carlos Jobim; but I have to confess that my greatest delight come from her account of “Yo soy María,” which is probably the best known excerpt from Ástor Piazzolla’s “tango opera” María de Buenos Aires. This work has drawn attention from opera companies around the world, but the closest it has gotten to San Francisco has been Long Beach!
Nevertheless, it is a bit churlish to grumble about things we do not have when last night’s Assad family offerings were so generous and so thoroughly engaging.
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